Black Tourmaline

Black tourmaline is schorl, the sodium- and iron-rich member of the tourmaline group and by far its commonest kind: Wikipedia puts it at up to 95 per cent of all tourmaline found in nature. It is opaque, brownish-black to black, and its iron gives it a high magnetic susceptibility. The name is older than 1400 and comes from a Saxon village, now Zschorlau, beside a tin mine where the black crystals turned up; Johannes Mathesius described it in 1562, and English writers later called it shorl, shirl or iron tourmaline. Like other iron-rich tourmalines it grows mainly in granite and granite pegmatite. Cunningham says it is usually too brittle for jewellery and seldom sold; he gives it to Saturn and to earth, uses it for grounding and to stand for the earth in spells of that element, and calls it protective, since it soaks up negativity once charged to do so. Hall presents it as a shield against psychic attack, spells, ill-wishing, electromagnetic smog and negative energy, says it grounds energy and lifts physical vitality, and links it with a calm, objective outlook, altruism and practical creativity.